رسالة: T-S 8J39.9

الوصف

End of a letter from the Iraqi Gaʾon Shemuel b. Ḥofni to a friend who traveled to Fustat. Dated: Ḥeshvan [1]310 Seleucid, which is November 998 CE. He asks the addressee to convey his gratitude to the Persian Qaraite David b. Bābshād (a.k.a. Bapshād). He also asks his friend to influence the Maghreb community in Fustat to improve their relationships with the Gaon. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #48) VMR. This was published by Goitein, “A Letter of the Gaon Samuel b. Hofni, Dated 998, and its Implications on the Biography of the Spanish Poet Isaac b. Khalfon,” Tarbiz, vol. 49, no. 1-2 (October 1979 – March 1980): 199–201 (Hebrew). It is discussed in depth in Rustow, Heresy, pp. 148–50, where there is a partial translation: “I would like to have there [in Fustat], may God be your support, something like what I have here [in Baghdad], [a means] to prod the notables to make contributions,” he wrote. “If you have dealings with or see any of our colleagues [aṣḥābinā] from the Maghrib, may God be their support, please do on my behalf as is your custom among them in prompting them and reminding them about contributing [to the yeshiva] according to their positions of merit. For it is among the punishments that God has visited upon me that He has weakened my position among them.”